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Hatem Ben Arfa

Guest sicko2ndbest

by Guest sicko2ndbest
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Ikon

Ikon

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Posted

It's Tuesday at present.  Bet you're a pain in the arse on Christmas Eve

 

No shit Sherlock? Thought it was friday! Just wanted to know if it was supposed to come out this week.

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SteveMc

SteveMc

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It's Tuesday at present.  Bet you're a pain in the arse on Christmas Eve

 

No s*** Sherlock? Thought it was friday! Just wanted to know if it was supposed to come out this week.

No one answered as no one knows.  In jovial way I was trying to tell you to stop being a cock and be patient.  The antipathy of your response has now made me say it more explicitly.

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Ikon

Ikon

Posted
Posted

It's Tuesday at present.  Bet you're a pain in the arse on Christmas Eve

 

No s*** Sherlock? Thought it was friday! Just wanted to know if it was supposed to come out this week.

No one answered as no one knows.  In jovial way I was trying to tell you to stop being a cock and be patient.  The antipathy of your response has now made me say it more explicitly.

 

Im sure someone knows! As it was written in text after the "Ben Arfa is back" video on nufc.co.uk. But i cant remember if it was this week.

 

Im at work now so i cant check it myself.

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bulivye

bulivye

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Posted

just in case we forget to "hatem"!

 

Nigel De Jong wishes he was tackling his hero Roy Keane at Wembley  http://www.footytube.com/news/guardian/nigel-de-jong-wishes-he-was-tackling-his-hero-roy-keane-at-wembley-L7889?ref=hp_zeitgeist

Nigel De Jong does not really do what-ifs, but there is one opposition midfielder whose absence the Dutchman will be feeling when Manchester City take on United in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday. Had Abu Dhabi and its millions arrived at City six years earlier and plucked a promising youngster from Ajax, the pair might even – just – have crossed swords in the English game. Sadly for De Jong, a boyhood hero retired long before the £18m enforcer reached Eastlands in 2009.

 

Growing up in the Netherlands the young De Jong was able to watch BBC television and particularly liked what he saw of a certain Manchester United midfielder on Match of the Day. "As a small kid I loved it when Roy Keane went in to win the ball with hard tackles. He was one of the guys who inspired me."

 

De Jong agrees his Wembley date would be even spicier if Sir Alex Ferguson's old captain were still around in opposition. "It would have been fun to face Keane, but there would be some yellow and red cards floating around."

 

The Dutchman smiles broadly when he says this but like Keane, there is far more to his repertoire than a collection of sometimes unsavoury, wince-inducing, challenges. De Jong's economically incisive passing knits City's game together while his intelligent positioning and knack of making vital interceptions will test United.

 

Yet if Roberto Mancini's side often struggle in his tactically articulate absence, admiration for De Jong is diminished, outside Eastlands at least, by the memory of three challenges. There was the late, leg-breaking lunge on the Bolton midfielder Stuart Holden 13 months ago in a friendly between Holland and the USA; the infamous karate kick that planted studs into the chest of Spain's Xabi Alonso during last year's World Cup final; and the controversial, if unpunished, tackle on Newcastle's Hatem Ben Arfa last October. Ben Arfa has only just returned to training after a double leg fracture.

 

"It's in the past," De Jong says, suddenly visibly uncomfortable. "You can only alter things by showing your qualities on the pitch." Whether such change has involved deliberately modifying his modus operandi remains unclear. "It's irrelevant to ask questions about that. When you go on the pitch, you give your all."

 

The shame is that this hard-man image overshadows the laudable distributive talents of a player whose early days at Ajax were spent as a creative, attacking midfielder. Indeed, it was only after moving to Hamburg that, suddenly dropping deeper and tackling harder, the more destructive, ruthlessly efficient "Lawnmower" was born. "If you challenge then you expect a challenge back," he says. "No hard feelings. As long as there's no intention, there's not a problem."

 

De Jong, a shade above 5ft 8in, will not be remotely fazed should Paul Scholes show off the edgier side of his United game on Saturday. "Scholes is one of the world's best midfielders but I've seen some bad challenges from him," he adds. "Scholes can take a punch and he can give one as well. I respect him but I've got no fear of anybody, to be honest. When I'm on the pitch, I'm on the pitch."

 

Such innate self belief was sparked not just by Keane's example but that of Fernando Redondo, Claude Makelele and Edgar Davids. "Edgar Davids put his body on the line, literally, to be the main guy," De Jong says. "He was a big idol."

 

Adhering to the Davids blueprint led De Jong to a World Cup final only for the kick at Alonso to provoke international outrage. Ongoing disgust was such that, shortly after the Ben Arfa tackle, the 26-year-old was dropped temporarily by Holland.

 

"It didn't bother me," De Jong says. "The only annoying thing was that there was a witch-hunt in Holland and my family were suffering. This last couple of months, though, it's been a lot more positive. It's better to be a positive than a negative but I'm still the same player, I'm still committed. I still give 100% in every game. I love football – it's the best thing out there."

 

Unfortunately for him, City's new found wealth is bringing out the worst in their detractors. "We're the world's biggest-spending club and everybody's trying to put us on the ground," De Jong says. "People are afraid of something new. People are jealous; it's normal. Obviously Chelsea had the perfect trainer at the time in José Mourinho, but you could see the jealousy when they were spending."

 

This rather begs the question as to whether Mancini can become another "perfect trainer". De Jong, a Mark Hughes signing, pauses. "We'll see what happens in the future," he says. "For now he's doing a good job. The scoring could be better but I think he can unite the players and, in the defensive area, he is really good tactically.

 

"I think we're a better team now. Everything is blending in a little bit more. It takes time – although you don't have a lot of time at Manchester City because everybody's expectations are so high."

 

Reaching a first final in three decades would go some way towards satisfying such aspirations and De Jong is quietly optimistic. "I don't think United are jealous of us and they don't fear us, but they are getting cautious because we're getting bigger by the day," he says. "They have experience and mental edge but we've grown stronger. The semi-final can go either way."

 

 

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Punk77

Punk77

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Posted

f***ing thug that De Mong, hope he gets his leg snapped in two.

 

Oh indeed. Earlier, Keane and Scholes were my pet hates. But De Jong's act put him on top of my list. I don't know who of them I hate the most.

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